Shopping and Smoothies

On Thursday, my blender developed a nasty leak through the base.  I have to guess that the gasket died.  It has served me well for the last two years, so we were faced with getting a new one.  Given the heat, and the fact that it's the weekend, we headed out to shop before even having breakfast, hoping to avoid both the heat and the usual crowds of strange people at Walmart on Saturdays.  We had also run into a spaghetti sauce crisis, in that we had used the last bag from the freezer.  Once on the road, David mentioned that he didn't have any chili either, so that meant stocking up on supplies for that, as well.  I casually wondered if tomato sauce might be cheaper at Walmart, than Sobey's. So--we shopped for groceries at Walmart.  I tend to avoid this privilege as I know that Walmart has forced smaller grocers to close all over the USA, and then left the area, leaving many poor people without any access to food.  

This was an experience.  Walmart keeps prices down by using lesser-know brands, including "Great Value".  I have sometimes run into "Great Value"  or as it sometimes appears as "GV" brand, in the Giant Tiger Store across the street.  There we find it in frozen food such a pizza, and for that, you get what you pay for.  But I've never used any of their canned goods.  Guess I'm going to now.  They also had some unbelievable deals on meat, and I confess that we took advantage last winter, without any consequences.

But both of us are fairly firm on buying produce, and most of our regular meat at Sobey's.

I also found a new blender at Walmart ( which was why I went in, in the first place.)  Amber has told me how much she likes her "Ninja" blender and we almost bought one, until I realized that it blended upside down.  The first one I bought, when I started my new eating regime, did it that way, and this wouldn't suit the process that my book asks for.  We did find a nice "Kitchen Aid" one, for the Ninja price, and brought it home.  This meant that we both had a smoothie for lunch, and it did a very fine job.  I hope it last awhile.

David started getting out the slow cookers for making the spaghetti sauce and chili, when we realized that we had both forgotten that one of my slow cookers had died, last time we power cooked, and we had got rid of the two very old ones we had under the stairs.  We only have one!  So, it's spaghetti sauce today ( and for supper too) and chili tomorrow.  Much easier on both of us.

And tonight is my night to watch tv.